6 Ways That Bloggers are Like Rappers

What we have in the blogosphere is the generation that grew up on Tupac vs. Biggie playing the same game in their universe.

Not convinced? Here are six similarities that leave very little room for doubt.

Similarity #1: Prolificacy

But I, somehow, some way / Keep comin’ up with funky a$$ sh*t like every single day. ~Snoop Dogg, Gin and Juice

Rappers are notoriously prolific, some of them releasing mixtapes on a monthly basis, delivering torrent after torrent of catchy street bangers. Prior to making it big, 50 Cent holed up in a studio and produced 36 songs in two weeks, and Lil’ Wayne seems to be releasing a 20-track album each month. In 2005 and 2006, The Game approached this level of productivity on the mixtape circuit. The list could go on.

Bloggers are also prolific, some of us producing upwards of 1,500 words per day or more. Our material might not be “funky @ss $h*t,” but we do come up with it “like every single day.” A-List bloggers like Markos Moulitsas, Scoble and Gina Trapani bust out blog posts faster than I can dictate, and Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net remarked that during the beginning of his blogging career he was publishing 20-30 posts per day.

Similarity #2: Guest Appearances as a Major Key to Success

In 1993, Snoop Dogg released the first debut album in history to hit the Billboard music charts at #1. The album — titled “Doggystyle” — attained off-the-bat success due to Snoop’s preexisting fan base established through guest appearances on Dr. Dre’s multiplatinum hit The Chronic. Guest rapping to gain exposure hasn’t stopped since and the top two songs on the Billboard Hot 100 right now are by “Usher featuring Young Jeezy” and “Flo Rida featuring T-Pain Low.”

Guest blogging is also a common means for gaining exposure on the blogosphere. Leo Baubuta, whose wildly successful Zen Habits blog gained over 30,00 subscribers in one year, said his guest posts were really what helped him take off.

Similarity #3: Personal Branding

All top 10 bestselling rap albums of 2007 are credited to a single artist, not a group. And although occasional rap groups find success, the personalities of individual rappers tend to shine past group affiliations. Rap is personality-driven in a way that rock music (and certainly classical music) just isn’t.

The same goes for blogging. Bloggers, not blogs, are the superstars. Coppybloggeris Brian Clark, Probloggeris Darren Rowse, IttyBizis Naomi Dunford, Perez Hiltonis Mario Lavandeira, and Dooce certainly is Heather Armstrong. It’s much easier to identify with a person than a website, and personalities shine past brands even on team-produced websites.

Similarity #4: Bosslessness

Plenty of rappers say, “I’m not a rapper, I’m a businessman.” ~Rolling Stone

Rappers might be backed up by other signers, signed to labels, and produced by producers, but no one tells them when, how, and why to work. Furthermore, they often work from home studios, from the road, or from any place they happen to be when inspired to write new lyrics.

The same goes for most bloggers. We tend to call the shots, work from home, and rise and fall with the popularity of our websites. There’s no one catching us when our subscriber count drops.

Similarity #5: Gang Affiliation

Personal alliances, friendships, and creative and collaborative relationships run strong between rappers. Established rappers promote their friends, cite their peers, produce beats for colleagues, make guest appearances on allies’ albums, and help their friends get record contracts. Some of the more famous alliances existed between 50 Cent, Enimen, and Dr. Dre, as well as between the Notorious B.I.G., Sean (Puffy) Combs, and Lil’ Kim.

Bloggers form similar alliances. Circles of friends swap guests posts, create blogging networks, link to and interview each other, etc., and the blogosphere can sometimes seem a little incestuous. Mess with the wrong blogger and you may get blacklisted by their network. I’d rather not go about naming crews in the blogosphere, but if you’ve been around here long enough (um… one day?) the alliances will pop out. You’ll see them.

Similarity #6: Freestyling

Freestyle = To make up a rap as you go. Could be a battle, a poem, or just a rap. ~Urban Dictionary

I’ve been rapping for about seventeen years, okay? I don’t write my stuff anymore, I just kick it from my head, y’know what I’m sayin’, I can do that. No disrespect, but that’s how I am. ~Young Churf

Freestyle rap is the live and improvisational creation of rap lyrics. The style is uncut, non-scripted, unrehearsed, and typically raw, although many artists have a ready supply of prepared lyrics and rhyme patterns they can use as filler or even around which they can build their set. Freestyling abilities have brought mainstream attention to previously unknown rappers like Eminem, who was discovered when he placed 2nd in the 1997 L.A. Rap Olympics. Many rappers are constantly freestylin’ in their heads to maintain their abilities. While freestylin’, every word isn’t made up: there might be fragments of phrases floating around in the rappers head that are strung together at the last moment.

Like rappers, bloggers often sit in front of their computers, knowing they need to get a post out but not quite knowing exactly what they’re going to say. What results is improvisational, raw, and only-draft material, and some of my own favorite posts have come because of this. Check here to see Leo Babuta freestyle.

An amazingly accurate analogy this is… I did not start to see real blogging traction until I started thinking like a rapper (although I did not realize this is what I was doing).

It was only after I hooked up with some buzz groups (gangs), started blogging frequently (prolificacy) [nice word by the way!] and created authentic and personal content (freestyling) did I see legitimate traffic and subscriber #’s.

One more you could throw in there… Bloggers, like rappers love BLING. Just take a look at the sidebars in most blogs and you’ll see lots of it.

“Rappers are notoriously prolific, some of them releasing mix-tapes on a monthly basis, delivering torrent after torrent of catchy street bangers. Prior to making it big, 50 Cent holed up in a studio and produced 36 songs in two weeks, and Lil’ Wayne seems to be releasing a 20-track album each month.”

That to me is more saying that quantity is better than quality. IMHO, the rap that is produced is simplistic and the hardest part is coming up with a rhythm to go with the words which could be as simple as 3 notes repeated towards infinity.

Besides that and the fact that I don’t really like rap, I completely agree with this analogy. Great post. Thanks.

i hate rap, so should i hate blogging all of a sudden. from the the reaction of the commenting section you can see that clay colling is running out of blog post articles and is pumping out second rate articles.

i do a lot strategy for the online world, more recently for blogs, the worst thing you can do to blogs as an industry is to compare it to a low class, talentless and destructive form of music which is rap!

i still like most of the articles you’ve written and will continue to read your future ones but instead of trying to figure out who we are by comparing our selves to others, lets create and establish our own identity please!

I loved this post! I was a gospel rapper back in the day and never thought of the similarities but you are right on! As for those that hate rap, I am not a fan of gangster rap but we “old school rappers” appreciate that rap has been around for centuries. It gained popularity as an art form in the Harlem Renaissance and expanded into popular culture in the 1980s. It’s not all about drugs and gangs.

Alright. I listen to white man’s rap. Okay? Yes. I like it. Loud. With lots of cursing. I like when people look at me. Okay? I’m like the Kid Rock of blogging. Um, like, the censored version. With kids. And a Canadian accent.

Definitely a fun post, even if I only like old-school rap. And definitely watch the gang affiliation thing. Some big (network) bloggers like to believe some lesser bloggers have said something more than they have. Bad career move. Difference of opinion isn’t valued as much online as we’d like to think.

I won’t try and emulate the rap vernacular like so many other commenters have done successfully (even if the name of my website is frighteningly close to Fo’ Sho’.. maybe I should rename it to fo’ shizzle ma nizzle?) but a good piece.

How clever. And kickass. I never considered myself akin to rappers, but now I feel so different. I want to start flashing cash ($1 bills) and dancing with scantily clad dudes (rather than girls). Thanks, Clay!

Thinking of it, I would have added one more similarity between bloggers and rappers: THE BLING.

Just like rappers proudly wear their shiny bling-bling or drive ultra-accessorized Hummers and Cadillacs, bloggers sometimes tend to fill up their sidebars with widgets that don’t add much usability. Most of the time, they are our “personal bling”, something to show-off.

Good analogy – I’d add in something about money…as in I don’t believe half the rap artists when they brag about how much they have…ditto the low-level wanna be probloggers (and maybe a few of the A-listers as well?).

A big difference may be the expanding market for mainstream bloggers due to embracing “open” and “free” standards. Many mainstream rappers haven’t yet caught the “open” and “free” mentality of web/music2.0.

Second, blogging is not as varied or creative as rap just yet. I’ve heard a far more varied body of style, content and creativity from the less confined body of underground hip-hop than from blogging at this point. The evolution and distinctiveness in hip-hop probably comes from how long the form has been around — a good 20 years plus more than blogging.

Wish I was talented enough to even rhyme (did I spell that right?) in order to leave a clever comment, but all I can do is agree and laugh along with some of the others. Loved the post and you really made some great key points. Keep up the good work!
Thanks!

I’d add another similarity: There are a countless number of struggling rappers out there hoping to be the next 50 Cent — and there are a countless number of bloggers on the web hoping to be the next Shoemoney.